Pages

Tuesday, 1 January 2008

Who Supports a Heroin Trial?

I am interested in keeping a list of who supports a heroin trial. It should become an issue soon as medical experts, welfare specialists and scientists are now able to submit research back into the drug policy debate.

This list is compiled from publicly available information on the internet and from emails asking the question. Some people may have changed their mind but they are on record claiming their support for or against a trial.

NOTE: There are many, many people against a trial so don't take my small list of those against as a cross spectrum of numbers. It is small simply because I am focusing on those who support a trial and if I get a response against a trial, I put their name up. If I see a clear statement from someone, I will put that up as well.

SUPPORT

*Phillip Adams: Journalist - The Australian / Announcer - Radio National / Author

'The evidence is already in that such approaches are foolish, and have wider ramifications than are usually considered in "evidence based" trials - especially trials by researchers with a predisposition to distribute heroin rather than minimise its use.'
--Andrew Bolt Response to email

'While ever this government is in office and while ever I am Prime Minister of this country, there will be no heroin trial.'
--John Howard

'In Switzerland, after a three-year trial, 71 per cent of voters in a national referendum in 1997 supported retention of prescription heroin as a treatment option. Why would the usually conservative Swiss support heroin prescription so overwhelmingly if this had not significantly benefited the community?'
--Dr. David Morawetz (Clinical Psychologist)

'I think the idea is definitely a promising one. I would be happy to support it so long as it was done in a randomised controlled trial framework – ie. with a treatment and a control group, so we could compare the impacts.'
--Dr. Andrew Leigh (Economist in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University) Response to email

Jeremy, what are you doing coming to my site? ... trying to give me credibility?

I must admit, I do visit your sites regularly and BoltWatch has spawned a national sport.

I wrote about AJ in a posting here. AJ was the reason I turned this issue into a quest as I always thought he was just a nasty conservative. He was originally in staunch opposition to it and was seen as an influence on Howard. I was as shocked as you.Kennett, was one of the original supporters. At one stage, Jeff offered up Victoria as a host along side the ACT. Read about it here.

BTW, do you support a heroin trial? (Trial being the operative word. If a 'trial' shows that it is not beneficial for Australia then the program for prescription heroin gets canned.)

The Australian Heroin Diaries has been chosen as one of the top 8 blogs in 2009 by AllTreatment.com:

This is a news driven blog, that writes about and commentates on different countries drug policies. The author is a recovering heroin addict which gives a unique view and a much different one from politicians on drug politics. A must read for anyone interested in the politics of drug use and substance abuse.